Berwick dedicates season to lost sophomore fullback

There was a somber and spirited mood that hung over Berwick’s six-day spring football practices.

Returning players got back into the routine, and incoming freshmen adjusted to the rigors of a high school workout.

While Panthers coach Mike Thomas tries to replace last season’s starting quarterback, three offensive linemen, three linebackers and a defensive end, there is one spot no single person can fill: the one of fullback Theron Madise Jr.

The 16-year-old sophomore died May 9. He drowned while swimming with friends in Bayou Teche.

“He’s going to be sorely missed because he was a great character person,” Thomas said. “The kids have dedicated next season to him because he was a true student-athlete. Everything he did, he excelled in. He was probably the key to our offense.”

Madise was a starter his freshman and sophomore years for the Panthers. He was selected second team All-District in 7-3A last season.

Besides football, Madise was a member of the track and field team. His best event was the triple jump, where his top mark was 45-1, a half-inch short of the school record.

He also competed in the long jump, high jump and pole vault for the squad.

Madise was honored during Berwick’s athletic awards banquet two days after his death. Students wore ribbons with his date of birth (12/15/92) and date of death (05/09/09).

Madise was equally gifted off the field of play. He was an honor roll student and a percussion member of the school band. He was chosen first chair of the 2007-08 District VII Junior High Honor Band.

The Morgan City native and Berwick resident was well-respected throughout his school and community as evidenced by his funeral service on May 16 at the Good Hope Baptist Church in Patterson.

“If I had to guess, every kid in the school was there,” Thomas said. “Everything he touched, every person he was around – I’m 43 years old and when he died it changed me. It changed the way I look at things. I know I’m not the only one. In Berwick, it’s a sad subject. That’s how much he meant to Berwick High School.”

The head coach admitted Madise’s death has been hard for some of his players to deal with.

On the first day of spring practice, cornerback Miles Liner rallied his teammates with a solemn declaration: ‘We’re going to dedicate everything we do to Theron Madise,'” according to Thomas.

While the coach understands his players’ desire for verbal expressions of solidarity with their fallen friend, he also knows it can be detrimental.

“After practice, I told the guys, ‘Everybody sitting here, everybody in this school, everybody in this community knows what type of kid, what type of character Theron Madise had,'” he recalled. “I said, ‘Do I mind you dedicating the season, dedicating every practice to him? No. I think you should because he was one of the hardest-working kids I ever met. But, we cannot say this every day. We can’t come up and get all brave and say, ‘We dedicate this to Theron. We dedicate that to Theron’ because it makes it harder to move on. If we’re going to dedicate this to Theron, we’re going to do this amongst these 45, plus the incoming freshmen. If you keep bringing it up, it gets harder to move on because of the type of person he was.'”

Despite their collective heartache, the Panthers executed near flawlessly during spring practices. As they continued to improve the spread offense and experiment with more man-on-man coverage in the 4-3 defense, Thomas saw his team perform the best it has in years.

“The kids made a commitment because of the work ethic that Theron had. He would never short anything, never slack on anything,” he said. “The kids knew that, and they’re going to look at this as an opportunity not to take anything for granted. Seize the moment because you don’t know when your last moment is.”

Madise’s number 26 jersey will be retired at the Panthers’ first home game next season, Sept. 10 against the Morgan City Tigers.

It will be a permanent testament to the impact Madise made on Berwick High School as both a student and an athlete.

“As a coach you see tragedies – not often, but you see them. When you see a tragedy to a kid the caliber of Theron, it’s very hard to deal with,” Thomas said. “You ask a bunch of questions, like, ‘Why it happened to a kid like this?’ He meant a lot to the Berwick community.”